The Human Protein-Protein Interaction Network
A multi-scale tour through the entire human proteome.
Data Viz | Proteomics | Animation
The Problem.
The human protein-protein interaction network is incredibly vast and information dense: STRING contains over 19,000 proteins, collectively comprising millions of interactions. The objective of this project was to create an immersive experience of the human PPI network that gives a sense of its sheer scale while providing a view into its underlying structure.
Building a Hierarchical Network.
The entire human ppi network is far too large to visualize all at once. To organize the network, we leveraged a "community detection" method: An algorithm that identifies highly connected communities within a complex network. Each community is connected to the others and holds within it a rich network of protein-level interactions.
Diving Into the Network.
Using atomistic-level data from AlphaFold, we created a protein-level tour of each community, capturing protein-level interactions and the visual identity of each protein.
Identifying Function.
Within every community, the protein-protein interaction network is further organized into sub-communities. Using bioinformatics approaches (gene ontology analysis), we highlighted the functional groupings that emerged from the network subcommunities.
